Tag: 6 Rating

Serena’s Review: “The Baby Dragon Cafe”

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Book: “The Baby Dragon Cafe” by A. T. Qureshi

Publishing Info: Avon, July 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: When Saphira opened up her café for baby dragons and their humans, she wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult to keep the fires from burning. It turns out, young dragons are not the best magical animals to keep in a café, and replacing all that burnt furniture is costing Saphira more than she can afford from selling dragon-roasted coffee.

Aiden is a local gardener, and local heart-throb, more interested in his plants than actually spending time with his disobedient baby dragon. When Aiden walks into Saphira’s café, he has a genius idea – he’ll ask Saphira to train his baby dragon, and he’ll pay her enough to keep the café afloat.

Saphira knows her happy-go-lucky attitude isn’t Aiden’s cup of tea, but everywhere she goes, Aiden seems to follow. Has Saphira finally found the answer to the baby dragon cafe’s problems, and maybe a little love along the way, too?

Review: It looked so cute and yet I struggled so much! And really, by the end of the book, the “cuteness” is really the most this book has to offer. The cover art is adorable, and I’m sure it will do its job selling this book to many fans of cozy fantasy. The concept, also, is fun. Dragons are obviously very “in” right now, and what’s better than an adult dragon? A baby dragon! And when the book was setting up these initial world-building aspects, it was enjoyable enough. But unfortunately, quite quickly things began to fall apart.

Right off the bat, I knew this was going to be a bit of a struggle with the decision to not only use modern lingo, but hyper “online” lingo. This is, of course, a personal bugaboo of mine, so I’m not a totally objective agent when reporting annoyance at this style of writing. However, I do think a legitimate criticism can be leveled when a book relies on these sorts of “quirky” vocab choices as strongly as this one does. And in this case, it’s not just a matter of “modern” phrases or word choices. After all, this is a contemporary cozy romance, for all that it is set in a fantasy world. But the writing seriously read like the author leads her life online and was forming her entire vision of dialogue, description, and interactions based on what was found in Threads conversations. It was cringy to the extreme, and I guarantee it won’t age well. I’m sure authors are primarily focused on just getting their books out the door and into the world, but I do think some attention should be given to the book’s ability to then last in the world and not immediately date itself into oblivion with Bookthreads-speak.

Another of my main struggle points with cozy fantasy is the challenge of striking the correct balance between a homey, comforting vibe with low stakes and simply not having any stakes or plot to speak of. This unfortunately fell firmly in the latter category. As this is a romance story first and foremost, most of the plot revolved around the development of and conflict within the romance, and it struggled in every area. Right off the bat, the story fell into instalove/lust territory, with the characters quickly becoming enamored of one anther. This is annoying but not necessarily a deal breaker.

However, what really took me out of the story was what followed: a series of decisions by the main characters WHOLLY disconnected from any motivation shown to us on the page. With inner dialogue, they would reflect on choosing not so share certain bits of information (for no reason!) and then literally pages later, they would change their mind and just casually mention that same information (again, for no reason!). Quite quickly it became evident that the author was struggling to maintain any sort of tension or arc within this romance, and all of these bizarre decisions and interactions were simply being clumsily slotted in to draw out the romantic resolution.

Beyond this, the writing was simply rather bad, overall. Again and again, the reader was told basic facts about things and how they are meant to feel about it all. There was basically no showing to speak of. The sentence structure and vocabulary was similarly limited and straight-forward (I guess there was some variety in the type of Internet slang you’d be reading from one moment to the next…). Even things like punctuation were off, with a plethora of exclamation points to be found littered across any given page!

Honestly, this book was incredibly disappointing. It’s all the more surprising in that it’s coming from an established author, which makes me suspect that something perhaps was missing on the editing side of things. Too often, we keep seeing authors/publishers trend chasing at a pace that outruns quality and creativity, and such was the case here. Unfortunately, I can’t really recommend this one. There are simply too many other great books to read out there!

Rating 5: With bizarre character choices and drowning beneath Internet slang, this book was a disappointing read.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Baby Dragon Cafe” can be found on this Goodreads list: July 2025 Most Anticipated Romance Releases

Serena’s Review: “Birth of Dynasty”

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Book: “Birth of a Dynasty” by Chinaza Bado

Publishing Info: Harper Voyager, July 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: After witnessing the massacre of everyone he’s ever known and loved, M’Kuru Mukundi, the sole surviving member of the High Noble House Mukundi of Madada, vows revenge. M’kuru flees to a small village where he hides under the guise of farm boy Khalil Rausi… unaware that the real Khalil’s father is the bloodthirsty General of Zenzele army, and under the direction of the King’s scheming son, Prince Effiom, was responsible for the murder of M’kuru’s people. When an imposter claiming to be M’kuru shows up in the village, the real M’kuru—now Khalil—must bide his time amongst his enemies, pretending to be everything that he hates in order to get vengeance.

In another part of the country where giants roam free, young Zikora Nnamani, the only daughter of Lord Nnamani, knows nothing of political intrigue—she wants little more than to be a fierce Seh Llinga warrior. But a well-known prophecy places too much potential power on her small shoulders, and—as far as Prince Effiom and the King know—she is the only living threat to their dynasty ruling forever. However, when a messenger arrives to “invite” Zikora to stay at the palace, her family is not in a position to refuse. Before she is taken away, she begins The Rite of Blessing, a magical inheritance that she will need to learn how to use, but that may also bring the world one step closer to the completion of the prophecy that Prince Effiom so fears.

Between scheming ladies at court, backstabbing princes on the prowl, and paranoid kings, M’kuru and Zikora must do what they can, no matter how terrible, to save their people and claim vengeance for their families. But they are just two young people against an entire kingdom—and a prophecy destined to thwart their dreams—and the last thing they can do is trust anyone…even each other.

Review: This one was a bit rough right from the start. Early on, it was clear the author had some lofty goals for this book, particularly with the political stakes, prophesy at the heart of things, and the ways in which characters would plot to see their own goals forwarded. However, the pacing was incredibly slow in the beginning, which made it a struggle to become invested. On top of that, the information we were given often was dropped in the readers lap via long, rather tedious infodumps. As I began to better understand this world, much of this did come together, and I was fairly invested in how things would turn out towards the end of the story. However, I think there’s a pretty steep ask put on readers right from the start with the story structure.

Some of the oddities of the info dumping/pacing weren’t helped by the stilted dialogue. It was the kind of thing that’s hard to put your finger on exactly or explain in a review. People simply spoke in ways that didn’t feel natural or organic. If I didn’t know better, it almost read as if the book had been translated from a different language and much of the spirit of the original dialogue had been lost in conversion leaving everything rather flat.

I also really struggled with the characters. On the positive side to start, however, I did enjoy that the book’s main characters were two noble children. The story takes place during a few time periods, but even in some of the later ones, they are still very much younger children. This was interesting choice, and I think the author successfully re-created the mentality of two noble children in these situations. Unfortunately, however, realistic depictions of noble kids in these situations doesn’t necessarily leave you with characters you enjoy spending time with. On top of that, you do get a variety of other, adult side characters. However, none of them were particularly likable either! I was really left grasping at straws trying to find someone to root for.

The book was also incredibly violent, with numerous traumatic and horrible events taking place, including sexual assault. The author is clearly writing a grim story, one that is set in a world full of awful, striving people who will do whatever it takes, and I think she does succeeds there. But I don’t particularly enjoy this sort of grimdark fantasy ala “Game of Thrones,” so I was largely put off by the violence and rape involved. That said, readers of dark fantasy may enjoy the way some of these themes are discussed and handled.

Overall, this simply wasn’t the book for me. I think there were some struggles with the writing and pacing over all, but I did become more invested in the overarching plot by the end of the book. That said, I’m never going to love a book where most (if not all) of the characters are some degree of unlikable. However, if you’re a grimdark fantasy reader who enjoys political intrigue, this may be the book for you!

Rating 6: Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me: too dark and with characters I struggled to enjoy.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Birth of a Dynasty” is currently on any lists but it should be on Political Fantasy.

Kate’s Review: “The Root Witch”

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Book: “The Root Witch” by Debra Castaneda

Publishing Info: Second Rodeo Books, September 2022

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A beautiful forest. A terrifying legend.

It’s 1986. Two strangers, hundreds of miles apart, grapple with disturbing incidents in a one-of-a-kind quaking aspen forest.

Knox is a new Forest Service ranger assigned to a vast, remote territory in Utah.

Sandy is a producer fighting for her place in a tough TV newsroom.

Both have heard about the shadowy figure believed to menace visitors to the forest. When a man disappears and reports of the Root Witch begin coming in, Knox and Sandy are plunged into a living nightmare.

Their lives converge on Halloween. Sandy sends a news crew to investigate the sightings. But when the team goes missing, and a shocking video surfaces revealing the ghastly truth, Knox and Sandy face the biggest decision of their lives.

Review: I’ve spoken of this before, but my favorite horror movie of all time is “The Blair Witch Project”. I remember seeing it in the theater when I was 14, and how transformative the experience was for in when it came to horror. I think that my adoration of this film has really molded my tastes and preferences when it comes to horror as a whole, and nature horror/survival horror is near and dear to my heart. I don’t remember how I stumbled upon “The Root Witch” by Debra Castaneda, but it had been sitting on my Kindle for a couple of years before I stumbled upon it while cleaning up my storage. When I saw it I had an ‘oh yeah, this sounded like “The Blair Witch Project’ moment, and decided then and there to finally take it on.

I’ll start with what I did like. For starters, the premise alone is great: there’s an aspen clone forest in Utah (in real life it’s a real place known as Pando) that is rumored to have some kind of dark entity stalking it referred to as The Root Witch. In 1986 a rookie forest service ranger named Knox moves into a cabin near the forest with his restless young wife, while a Salt Lake City newsroom producer named Sandy, hoping to prove something, wants to send a team into the forest to do a story on the urban legend. The team goes missing, their tapes are found, and something otherworldly is lurking. All of this was solid and absolutely clicked for me. I really enjoyed Sandy’s storyline in particular, as her constant roadblocks in her career, usually due to misogyny, are very real, and because of this her motivations are completely understandable, which in turn makes her guilt over her missing crew all the more stressful. I also really love some good urban legend horror, and the background that Castaneda puts into the Root Witch lore was very enjoyable, and with all of that in mind when we DO get some answers (in the form of found footage described moments) I was very satisfied with the execution.

But there is a flip side to this, which brought the story down a bit for me. I really liked the due diligence of describing the Root Witch lore and legend, but we don’t really get much direct action with The Root Witch itself. We rely mostly on descriptions, or aftermath moments with dead things being discovered, but in terms of actual building suspense with in the moment reveals? Not so much. I did like the video once we got there, but I had hoped for more scary and tense moments instead of a lot of build up for Knox and Sandy. Had there been a more even distribution of build up AND satisfying payoff, I would have enjoyed it more, but as it is, it just felt uneven and unsatisfying. And on top of that, I wasn’t nearly as invested in Knox’s story, which was a little ironic given that I fully anticipated to enjoy the path following the ranger. But I thought his wife was a bit grating, there was a side plot with a rancher that wasn’t as fleshed out as I had hoped it would be, and there weren’t enough forest moments with him. I just needed more action!

“The Root Witch” was a bit of a disappointment, but I think that I may try out more stories from Debra Castaneda. There is so much promise here, and I would be curious to see if it comes out in other spooky tales.

Rating 6: I really liked the premise and it had some great moments of found footage transcriptions, but I wish that we had more interactions with the Root Witch instead of aftermaths.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Root Witch” is included on the Goodreads list “Botanical Gothic and Plant Horror”.

Serena’s Review: “A Dance of Lies”

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Book: “A Dance of Lies” by Brittney Arena

Publishing Info: Del Rey, June 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Vasalie Moran was once a dancer in King Illian’s court, until he framed her for murder. Barely surviving her two years in the dungeons, she’s suddenly called to face her king. He offers her a deal: become his spy at the six-week royal Gathering and he’ll grant her freedom.

As Illian’s orders grow bloody and dangerous, forcing her to harm and betray those around her, Vasalie discovers that the monster she serves may be aligned with a bigger monster—one far closer to home. With her world threatened, Vasalie enlists the help of Illian’s brother and greatest adversary, the infamous King of the East.

As the rivalry between brothers escalates, with Vasalie caught in the middle, the horrifying truth of her past comes to light. If she wants to survive, she must decide who to trust, who to fight for, and how much of her soul she’s willing to damn in the process.

Review: Well, another romantasy down in the books. Another mixed bag affair. At this point, I acknowledge that I’m probably just a picky reader when it comes to this subgenre, and more often than not, I’m better off in “romantic fantasy” than romantasy, a distinction you wouldn’t think would make as much of a difference as it does! This one had a lot of potential, but in the end, it didn’t work for me in the way I had hoped it would.

Not a lot really worked for me with this one, unfortunately. But some of that is definitely objective. The style of writing, for one thing, felt fairly simplistic, leaving me feeling distanced from the characters and action and not able to fully invest myself in what was happening on the page. Part of this came down to what I felt was an imbalance between inner monologues and outward action/description. Yes, our main character has had a rough go of it, but there came a point in the first third of the story where I simply didn’t need to revisit some of these hardships as often as we were. All of this said, however, readers who prefer a more straight-forward style of writing or who prefer more inward-reflecting main characters may not struggle with the writing as much as I did.

I also liked the general idea of Vasalie’s disability and the inclusion of a character like this. That said, I’m not sure the execution quite worked. Again, a lot of inner narration was devoted to the struggles and adjustments that Vasalie needed to make due to this disability. However, whenever she needed to perform, it felt as if this disability suddenly, magically disappeared! The story didn’t outright say this, but the implication and depiction was that a person affected by a disability could simply “get past it” whenever it was needed. There was nothing egregious in this area, but I did think there was a heavy disconnect between the inner reflections of Vasalie’s disablity and the actual affect it had on her life (very little, especially when her dancing was needed for plot purposes).

I also didn’t love the romance. I didn’t expect a love triangle situation, so I was displeased to see one emerging fairly early on. While not the worst I’ve read, I often found myself frustrated by Vasalie’s choices. I definitely had a preference of her two choices, and I felt like she spent way too much time chasing the wrong one. Beyond that, I’m not sure if I’ve ranted about it before, but I’m so over the cutesy little nicknames that seem to now be a requirement in the romantasy genre. Authors, they’re not cute. Please stop.

Me cringing so hard at the latest “clever” nickname to pop up in my romantasy read

So yeah, this was kind of a bummer of read. Nothing was horribly wrong with it, but on the other hand, nothing was really great. More general fans of romantasy (i.e. less picky ones) will likely enjoy this one, especially those who like love triangles/less defined romantic interests. However, if you’re just a casual fan, I’m not sure this is the read for you.

Rating 6: Unfortunately, this one just didn’t click with me, feeling at once too familiar and too remote to become invested in.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Dance of Lies” can be found on this Goodreads list: June 2025 Most Anticipated Romance Releases

Serena’s Review: “Realm of Thieves”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Realm of Thieves” by Karina Halle

Publishing Info: Ace, June 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ebook from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: For Brynla Aihr, crime and survival have always gone hand in hand. Ever since she escaped the fanatical dragon-worshipping cult that controls her homeland, she’s had to carve out a life doing the stealing dragon eggs. Egg theft is illegal and, in most cases, fatal. To breach a dragon’s nest means a harrowing journey through the ancient wards spelled to keep the monstrous beasts confined. Dragons can’t get out and only those with a death wish can get in.

Despite the risks, dragon eggs are highly coveted for their magic. A black market flourishes under competing criminal empires, and Brynla’s loyalty has always been to the highest bidder. Until she finds herself kidnapped and blackmailed by Lord Andor, a formidable lieutenant of House Kolbeck, and thrust into the dangerous political games of rivaling dynasties.

Brynla and Andor clash at every turn, sparking heat in ways Brynla’s never felt before. But in a world that’s prophesized to return to the dragons, and rife with betrayal and secrets at every turn…how close to the flames is she willing to stand?

Review: There are so, so many dragon books in romantasy. To be fair, dragons were always pretty popular in fantasy/romantasy, even before “Fourth Wing.” But now it seems out of control! I honestly sometimes lose track of them all, which one’s I’ve read, how many new ones are coming out and what differentiates them, etc. etc. So, yes, here’s another dragon romantasy review!

Unfortunately, I’m still thwarted in this area. I’m starting to think that I may just need to stick with my more traditional fantasy books for my dragon kick, at least until it dies down a bit in massive popularity. As it stands, too often it feels as if authors and publishers may just be trying to cash in on a popular trope instead of following an organic story-making process. Such is the case here. While there were aspects of the world-building here with its use of dragons that I thought were interesting, as the story continued, this book ultimately seemed to turn more into a gangster/mafia romance story. Which I don’t dislike as a romance subgenre on its own, but wasn’t why I was picking this book up.

Ultimately, from early in the story, everything felt rather flat. The author was telling me a lot of things, but I wasn’t seeing many reasons to become emotionally involved. The characters were just kind of there, following along in many of the standard FMC/MMC archetypes that we’ve come to expect from books like this. The pacing was fairly stilted, with the book dragging significantly in the middle of the story only to fall through the floor with the almost bait-and-switch with the genre change from fantasy to mafia romance in the end. And over and over again characters and plot points operated in ways that didn’t make sense other than as quick resolutions to any challenges that presented themselves. Things happened because a problem needed to be solved. And solved quickly with very little conflict being given any time to brew.

Much of this only came to play as I continued reading, but I was already started off on the wrong foot by the way the romance was handled. When I say “fast” I can’t emphasize enough just how fast I mean. The characters meet and that’s pretty much it. Their insta-attraction/lust/love was so extreme that it felt totally unbelievable and threw me out of the book. True, I prefer a slow burn (typically even across multiple books!) but there are numerous romantasy titles I can point to that have an established romance in book one that I enjoyed (see “Shield of Sparrows.”) This book totally missed the mark for me in this department. As a bit of a side note, I’m very over the cutesy nicknames that the MMCs give FMCs. They are getting more and more ridiculous and over-the -top. If someone talked like this in real life, the cringe would be off the charts.

Sadly, this was a miss for me. I know that this author is quite prolific, so I might need to dig around her back catalog and see if I connect better with one of her previous books. I’m sure fans of her work will enjoy this, but if you want a well-developed romance or a book that focuses strongly on the fantasy elements, you may want to pass on this one. That said, if you like mafia romance, this may be the unexpected hit you’re looking for!

Rating 6: With a flat-feeling plot, lack of complex characterization, and a romance that went from zero to one hundred in two seconds flat, this one sadly wasn’t for me.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Realm of Thieves” can be found on these Goodreads lists:Most Anticipated Romantasy releases of 2025

Serena’s Review: “The Whisperwood Legacy”

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Book: “The Whisperwood Legacy” by Jo Schulte

Publishing Info: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, May 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: e-ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Welcome to Whisperwood, a sprawling theme park nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, where thrilling rides and picture-perfect scenery bring cult-classic fairy tales to life. Or at least they did until eighteen months ago, when the family matriarch, Virginia Strauss, suddenly shut Whisperwood’s gates and the beloved park was left to wither away along with the family’s dwindling fortune.
 
For seventeen-year-old Frankie Strauss, Whisperwood’s closure has been a blessing in disguise. After seeing three generations of wealth’s corrupting influence, she is more than ready to shed the Strauss-family’s gilded handcuffs.
 
But when Virginia goes missing, Frankie realizes that her family might be guilty of something much worse than mere dysfunction. With the help of the mysterious and handsome groundskeeper, Jem, Frankie sifts through a web of near truths and outright lies, uncovering a reality where nothing is as it seems and fairy tales aren’t just real—they’re deadly.

Review: I live ever in hope that I will find a contemporary fantasy novel that I will connect with. It’s an entire subgenre of fantasy that I often struggle to fully appreciate. That said, I was excited by the concept of this one, especially by its creepy carnival cover! Alas, yet again, I find that I’m perhaps just not the correct reader for these books.

Let’s start with a few positives. While the story starts off weaker, things do begin to improve towards the middle point when some of the fantasy elements begin kicking in more fully. That said, it’s quite a wait to get to this portion, and I think the book would have been better served to have more carefully balanced the two halves and styles of the story. The fantasy aspects were also pretty wacky. This is a good and bad thing, I guess. On one hand, I was left with a strong sense of “what the heck is even happening” through much of it. But on the other, once we got into the back half of the book, it was easier to become more invested in finishing if just because I wanted to see what crazed situation would happen next.

However, this is definitely one of those YA fantasy novels that leans heavily in the YA direction. Of course, this is written for teens, so that isn’t a criticism on its own. However, many YA fantasy readers are adults, and there are way too many stereotypical YA fantasy tropes to be found here for it to be scalable to an older audience. For one thing, the romance struck heavily of instalove, with almost no attempt made for it to be given any further depth. There was also a heavy reliance on what I felt were fairly cringing modern references. Again, I’m not a teen, so maybe these will hit home better with this audience. But I have to say, this is the kind of style choice in writing that will quickly date this book, even by the standards of those who may enjoy it now.

However, while much of the writing and characterization felt very juevenile, there was also a lot of swearing, especially by one character in particular. Now, I’m no wilting flower, but it does leave me and others who recommend books in an odd position. Due to the simplistic nature of the book itself, I don’t think adults or even older teens are going to connect with it. However, I’d also feel a bit uncomfortable recommending it to middle graders, what with some of these language choices.

It was just an odd book, all told. If I had been left to my own devices, I probably would have DNF’d this one, but I always want to give a book I’ve received an ARC for my full attention through the end. This may work for some younger teen readers, but I don’t think it will connect to many readers beyond that. Perhaps, ultimately, this will best work for readers looking for a current version of “Goosebumps” or something of that ilk.

Rating 6: Overall, this read as very young even for a YA book and fell into too many tropes to have much new to over to the genre.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Whisperwood Legacy” can be found on this Goodreads list: YA Novels of 2025.

Kate’s Review: “Bochica”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Bochica” by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro

Publishing Info: Atria/Primero Sueno Press, May 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A real-life Latin American haunted mansion. A murky labyrinth of family secrets. A young, aristocratic woman desperate to escape her past. This haunting debut gothic horror novel is perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic and The Shining.

In 1923 Soacha, Colombia, La Casona—an opulent mansion perched above the legendary Salto del Tequendama waterfall—was once home to Antonia and her family, who settle in despite their constant nightmares and the house’s malevolent spirit. But tragedy strikes when Antonia’s mother takes a fatal fall into El Salto and her father, consumed by grief, attempts to burn the house down with Antonia still inside.

Three years later, haunted by disturbing dreams and cryptic journal entries from her late mother, Antonia is drawn back to her childhood home when it is converted into a luxurious hotel. As Antonia confronts her fragmented memories and the dark history of the estate, she wrestles with unsettling questions she can no longer Was her mother’s death by her own hands, or was it by someone else’s?

In a riveting quest for answers, Antonia must navigate the shadows of La Casona, unearthing its darkest secrets and confronting a legacy that threatens to swallow her whole.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

Anyone who knows me or has been reading this blog for awhile knows that I really adore Gothic stories, especially if they are within the horror genre. Isolated settings, tormented heroines, questions of hauntings or ghosts or hallucinations, I love it all. So obviously the book “Bochica” by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro really called out to me, given that not only is it a Gothic story with a mansion that has a haunting history, it’s also in the jungles of Colombia! In the early part of the 20th Century! All of this is just catnip to me, and I had been really looking forward to digging in once it was getting closer to review time.

I absolutely loved the setting of this book. For one, I really enjoyed the time and place, with the focus on Colombia in the 1920s and 1930s, centered mostly in a Gothic mansion nestled in the jungle by a large waterfall (based on an actual mansion that has its own history that somewhat mirrors this story). I love Gothic stories, and to have one centered with a Latin American backdrop and a rich and complex historical basis really compelled me. I loved the way that Flórez-Cerchiaro paints a portrait of this opulent hotel with a dark history, and how I could just see it all come to life as I read the book. I also greatly enjoyed the histories that this story touched upon, whether it was the Muisca mythology and folklore, as well as the ways that the book would touch upon colonialism and imperialism, and the role that the Catholic Church has played in such things ever since the Spanish-led conquest/genocide in this area. There are also some creepy and eerie moments that really unnerved me, with strange shadowy figures or weird moments in the dark.

On the flip side, outside of our main character Antonia, I wasn’t really blown away by our cast of characters, as everyone that wasn’t her didn’t really interest me or feel well expanded upon. Whether it was a complicated relationship between Antonia and her father Ricardo that felt limp, or a romantic connection between Antonia and her love interest/journalist Alejandro that never really crackled, or even an antagonist with secrets in Doña Pereira, who has a past connection to Antonia and her mother and has taken over El Salto as a hotel, none of the characters really did much for me, and the way that Antonia interacted with any of them just didn’t really take off. And because of that, my reading experience never felt very high stakes, and I wasn’t as engrossed with the story as much as I had hoped I would be. I think that going in with a lot of high hopes set it up for a bit of a free fall when they weren’t met, and while I would certainly recommend this book as a Gothic horror story with a unique POV, it doesn’t really stand out beyond that.

A bit of a mixed bag. I definitely suggest checking it out if you have been thinking about it, but the comparisons to other stories like “The Shining” and “Mexican Gothtic” aren’t quite on point.

Rating 7: The setting is eerie and very unique with great explorations of the history of the area, but the characters were kind of flat, and I was never fully pulled in. Overall, lots of potential, but it didn’t quite channel it.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bochica” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Murder Land”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Murder Land” by Carlyn Greenwald

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, May 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Where You Can Get That Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Murder Land opens tonight. Not everyone will survive. Buckle up for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

Seventeen-year-old Billie feels like she is on top of the world. She gets to spend the summer with her best friend, sparks are flying with her crush, and she has received a promotion to ride operator for one of the most buzzworthy new attractions in the theme park she works at. But the first night on the new job takes a dark turn when her creepy coworker mysteriously dies…on her ride, when she isn’t authorized to be running it.

At first, it seems like he died by heart attack, but by the time she returns to the body with help, it looks like a broken neck. Had she just imagined him sitting upright a few minutes ago? It’s as if someone is trying to pin his death on her, and she has one night to figure out who is really responsible before she is blamed.

Billie recruits the help of her friends to sneak around the park after-hours and search for the truth. But as the night stretches on and more people wind up dead, Billie realizes she may not make it out of Murder Land alive. And her friends may know more than they’re letting on.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an eARC via NetGalley!

Outside of Disney World, I am not REALLY a fan of theme parks. We have a couple here in Minnesota, there’s Valley Fair a bit south of the cities, and the Mall of America has Nickelodeon Universe, which my five year old loves and I only tolerate for her sake (also, here’s some lore: it USED to be called Camp Snoopy and was Peanuts themed, but alas, those days are long over). But even though I don’t really like theme or amusement parks, I do love the idea of a horror or thriller novel set in one. It just opens up so many different opportunities for suspense and horror. Because of this I was definitely interested in checking out “Murder Land” by Carlyn Greenwald, a new YA thriller that has a murderous night at a popular theme park as its premise. Nickelodeon Universe could NEVER. Plus I really like that cover. It just screams Santa Cruz Boardwalk by way of “The Lost Boys”.

No vampires, though. (source)

But promising premise and my own dorky associations aside, I am sorry to say that, for me, an old hat connoisseur of the thriller genre, “Murder Land” was a bit of a let down.

But first, the good. As I mentioned above, the premise and potential of this story is off the charts for me. There is a precedent in thrillers and horror stories for theme parks or carnivals or festivals to be unique and unsettling settings, and I, for one, wouldn’t be opposed to more of it. And that translates over to “Murder Land”, with clear homages to places like Knotts Berry Farm. And I always love a theme of greedy corporations hoping to hide scandals for profit purposes, and the conspiracies that can come to fruition because of it. And also, as a YA thriller, I could see this being a solid introduction to the thriller genre, as there is definitely a plotted out mystery that does feel planned and thought out. I also love a device that uses epistolary or ‘found footage’, so the way that we have transcripts from a website/channel that is all about the history of CaliforniaLand and references ‘urban exploration’ along with it. That all worked for me.

But, on the flip side, I am definitely not the target audience for this book, and I have read so many thrillers over the years, that nothing about “Murder Land” really stood out to me despite all of the potential that it had. I thought that our main characters, rounded out by protagonist Billie and her friend group Grace, Leon, and Sawyer, were pretty cookie cutter in their personalities and their relationships with each other. We have a bit of a love quadrangle going on, which I can usually grin and bear if it’s basically sidelined, but within this story, taking place in ONE night with lots of death and murder and tragedy at hand, it felt clunky and out of place. I also felt that the way that the reveals were done, outside of a few in the transcripts, didn’t have that much weight. I think this is probably due to the fact that I wasn’t as invested in the story because I wasn’t as invested in the characters, but I DO feel like even if I don’t connect with any characters in a thriller I can still be, well, thrilled. And I wasn’t held in much suspense as this story was going. I do think that it’s very possible (maybe even probable) that if I was a teen reading this it would have worked better, but for this forty year old, it just didn’t click.

Overall I think that this didn’t work for me because I’m not the audience it caters to. “Murder Land” was a disappointment for me, but it probably won’t be for everyone!

Rating 6: This is a solid thriller for the age group it is intended for, but seasoned thriller fans in general may be a little underwhelmed.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Murder Land” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Releases of May 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “When The Wolf Comes Home”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “When The Wolf Comes Home” by Nat Cassidy

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.

As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they’re up against, but she’s about to learn there’s more to these surreal and grisly events than she could’ve ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

Every once in awhile I encounter an author that has some pretty solid and good hype around their work, and then when I try it out it doesn’t REALLY click with me. A lot of the time with a one off I am inclined to give said author another go, especially if the hype of future works continues. That’s been my experience with Nat Cassidy, as I didn’t really gel with his book “Mary”, but kept seeing others praise that book as well as his other works after the fact. When I saw that happening with “When The Wolf Comes Home”, I told myself that it was time to give it another go. I hoped that I would have a better result with this book. And it was…. kind of a similar experience as last time?

Firstly, however, there were a lot of things I did like about this book. For one, wow is this a gnarly and gory monster story, with some solid moments of suspense and some breakneck action. We follow Jess, an aspiring actress who has kind of found herself stalled out and working in a diner, who stumbles upon a mysterious young boy who is being chased by his father, who also happens to be taking the form of a monstrous killer wolf. So, at the jump, this starts like a really graphic and absolutely insane (I say this in a praising way) monster tale, with no holds barred monster horror with lots of nasty beats of gore and body horror. I can’t help but cackle a bit at the fact that at the start of the month I was saying how I hadn’t seen much werewolf horror in recent years, and then in April I had three books with werewolf-esque themes. Cassidy brings his usual uninhibited scares to the story, and man, it’s bloody and nasty. But what struck me more about this tale is that it also has a lot of deep and emotional explorations of trauma, grief, and complicated relationships with fathers. For the mysterious Boy it’s pretty clear, but as we get to know Jess we find out that her father abandoned her as a child and it’s something that she has had to deal with and process her entire life. We also get a really poignant author’s note from Cassidy after the ending detailing his inspirations for this story from his own life, and it added another layer to an already intense thematic that I really liked.

But, even with all of that great action and gnarly/poignant characterization, there were a couple things that didn’t quite land for me in this book. The first is that there is a HUGE swerve from what has been laid out as the main issue/plot point of this novel. I definitely thought that was I was getting was a werewolf story when I picked this book up. And, to be fair, there are certainly elements that would make this a werewolf story. But once it was revealed that there was, in fact, something else going on, I was taken aback, but wasn’t quite as enthralled as I had been because it felt so out of left field. It’s not BAD, don’t get me wrong, but it just felt like a huge deviation and it never quite stuck that landing nor recovered from it. On top of that, we had a moment early on that was alluded to as being significant (I don’t want to spoil anything so I’m going to be vague), then was kind of cast aside but still mentioned, and then once we came back to it it threw another grenade very close to the end that blew a huge chunk into the ending and story overall. And then how it wrapped up kind of confused me. This very well could just be a ‘me’ problem, though. But I was left with wanting more.

So another chance on Nat Cassidy had another mixed bag of results with “When The Wolf Comes Home”. The things that worked really really worked, but the things that didn’t were clunky.

Rating 6: I was into it for a good chunk, but then a swerve of a plot twist and a somewhat confusing ending kind of knocked it down a few points for me.

Reader’s Advisory:

“When the Wolf Comes Home” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.

Book Club Review: “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”

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We are part of a group of librarian friends who have had an ongoing book club running for the last several years. Each “season” (we’re nerds) we pick a theme and each of us chooses a book within that theme for us all to read. Re-visiting some of our past themes, we’re once again reading books that have had film/TV adaptations and then comparing the two mediums. For this blog, we will post a joint review of each book we read for book club. We’ll also post the next book coming up in book club. So feel free to read along with us or use our book selections and questions in your own book club!

Book: “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer & Anne Burrows

Publishing Info: The Dial Press, July 2008

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

What We Watched: “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”

Book Description: January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends – and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island – boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Kate’s Thoughts

Hooray for book club! I genuinely feel this way all of the time no matter what the circumstance, but I also love how it will push me outside of my comfort zones when my fellow members pick our books each month. And that happened with “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Burrows. Because while I do read historical fiction, I generally don’t read WWII historical fiction. But bring it on, book club! Give me a reason to stretch my reading muscles!

I hadn’t realized until I picked it up that this book was an epistolary novel, but it was a pleasant surprise because I really do enjoy epistolary stories. I enjoyed reading the letters between the various characters and seeing their personalities come out through their letters, and I liked how it made for an interesting way for the plot to come together. I can certainly say that this book had a lot of charming aspects, from quirky characters to a tight knit community bringing and outsider into the fold, to some pretty funny bits in the letters. It was a breezy read, and it was engaging enough.

On the other hand, World War Two books aren’t usually my go to for reading, fiction or non-fiction alike. While it was unique in the sense that the island of Guernsey was occupied by Nazis, and therefore the citizens had to actually live with their enemies, it just wasn’t really my cup of tea. It didn’t really help that I had a hard time with the mentioned romance between Society Founder Elizabeth’s romance with a German doctor named Christian, as while I did appreciate that the authors did their due diligence to make it feel the least amount of whitewashing of Nazis (and actually I liked the book’s approach to this more than the movie, as the book did portray Christian as actively resisting in his own small ways), it still felt clunky. This combined with just a general ambivalence towards the genre made it a middle of the road read for me.

All in all it fostered good book club discussion and had its charming bits. But I’m probably not the target audience for this book. But if you like WWII fiction that feels somewhat cozy, this would be a solid choice!

Kate’s Rating 6: It was charming and engaging, but it’s not really my kind of book at the end of the day.

Book Club Questions

  1. How did you feel about the format of this story, and how does it compare to other epistolary novels?
  2. There is a large cast of characters in this book. Did any of them stick out to you? How did you like and dislike?
  3. What did you think of Christian and how he was portrayed as a romantic interest for Elizabeth in the past despite the fact he was a Nazi occupier?
  4. If you have read the book and seen the movie, what did you think of the changes that were made? Were there any you liked? Disliked?
  5. There are many WWII novels out there. What kinds of genre and sub-genres do you like with these stories? Any titles you like best?

Reader’s Advisory

“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” is included on the Goodreads lists “World War II Fiction”, and “Foreign Lands”.

Next Book Club Pick: “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” by Judy Blume